Russian nuclear theft alarms US

Chechen rebels have stolen radioactive metals, possibly including plutonium, from a Russian nuclear power station in the southern region of Rostov, according to US nuclear officials.

The theft, which took place within the last 12 months at the new Volgodonskaya nuclear power station near the city of Rostov-on-Don, has heightened US fears that weapons-grade plutonium may have fallen into the hands of terrorists or countries such as Iraq or Libya.

The precise details of the security breach remain unclear, but one US official said there was the "possibility that a significant amount of plutonium was removed", together with other radioactive metals. These included caesium, strontium and low-enriched uranium, which pose a threat to human health if detonated with conventional explosives to create a "dirty bomb".

The US source said Chechen rebels were believed to be responsible for the theft. "Chechen groups have relationships with countries we do not find exceptionally desirable. The possibility that these metals may have been given to another party is very troubling," he said.

The nuclear plant - one of the newest atomic facilities in Russia - went online last December, after a nine-month trial period. The US official said the theft was reported by Russian officials to the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), which informed the US department of energy about the incident.

The department has begun a massive operation in Russia to improve the security of nuclear facilities. The G8 group of nations pledged $20bn last month to help Russia protect its ageing weapons arsenals.

Russia has an estimated 400 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium considered by western experts to be "at risk" from theft because of poor security. US government experts are negotiating with Russian officials to speed through urgently needed safety upgrades.

Southern Russia, bordering sensitive nations in central Asia and the Caucasus, is considered a flashpoint in non-proliferation. The US source said there had been a "number of occasions" in which Iranian agents tried to buy weapons-grade plutonium from facilities in southern Russia.

"They seem to have been scammed a few times," he said.

The IAEA, the Russian civilian nuclear ministry, Minatom, and the Rostov nuclear power station, deny the Rostov theft took place. An IAEA spokeswoman said their code of conduct would not oblige them to treat such an incident in confidence.

But the US official said: "This incident is tied to a broader issue. There are a couple of other occasions when the Chechens may have acquired nuclear or radioactive sources. Russia is rightly very concerned about that. We should not just blame Russia. The US does not protect its materials better than anyone else."

Matthew Bunn, senior research assistant at the Managing the Atom project at Harvard University, said: "It would not be too surprising if nuclear fuel had been stolen from a power plant. This has happened before in the former Soviet Union."

In 1996 Chechen rebels left a substantial quantity of caesium-137 wrapped in conventional explosive, in Izmailovo park in Moscow. The device was not detonated.